"The unacceptable character of this action taken by the teacher commanded an unequivocal measure," Diane Lamarche-Venne, president of the Educational Commission of Marguerite-Bourgeoys, said in a statement.

The commission's investigation took into account the gravity of the teacher's actions, the affect on the students and "standards mandated by the teachers' collective agreement," the commission said. The video "contained offensive and inappropriate material," the board said.

School officials said the class viewing took place on the morning of June 4, the same day German authorities captured Magnotta in a Berlin Internet café, ending an international manhunt for the suspected killer. Jun Lin, a 33-year-old student at Montreal's Concordia University, was killed in late May in one of the city's grisliest crimes in years.

Police said Magnotta killed and dismembered Lin and posted a 10-minute video of the slaying online. Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said the video shows Magnotta engaged in sexual acts involving body parts and included evidence of cannibalism.

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"At the beginning of class each day, history teachers from the school talk about actuality, what happens around Montreal, and that was part of the actuality that day, so he wanted to talk about it, and kids said that they wanted to watch it, so basically he just did what the kids wanted to do," student Carole-Anne Bouchard-Giroux told CNN affiliate CTV on Wednesday.

One of the vice principals at Cavelier-De LaSalle High School in Montreal overheard two students speaking between classes shortly after the incident, school board representative Jean-Michel Nahas said.

The vice principal spoke to several students and decided during lunch to immediately suspend the teacher and launch an investigation.

About 20 students viewed the video, and at least six students sought help from a crisis team of psychologists and counselors that was made available to students after the incident, Nahas said.

The 29-year-old fired teacher wrote the vice principal an e-mail later in the day apologizing for his actions and was "sorry for all the damages that could have been caused by the video," Nahas said.

"There are many filters on the computers at the school and when we tried to view it ourselves, we were not able to," he said. "It was impossible to view it [over the school Internet connection] so we don't know how he was even able to."

Additional psychologists and counselors were made available to students again this week because of the sudden media attention.

The teacher met with the school board Wednesday afternoon in Montreal. The board wanted to know "why he did it, if he has any justification of it, and what he has to say about it," Nahas said while the meeting was in progress Wednesday.

Said the commission in its statement: "The CSMB hopes to bring a climate of peace conducive to academic success in this phase when students enter their examination period."